(ABC 6 News) – Austin High School hosted its second annual Unified Basketball Day on Thursday, with four other high schools from around the area participating.

The purpose behind the special day was to integrate students with disabilities into sports such as basketball with team practices, competitions and more.

“It’s not super competitive, but it gets all the people playing the game and involved,” said Physical Education Teacher Jacy Bodi.

Each team is composed of those who have disabilities, as well as those who do not. This is part of an effort to help everyone learn the game, and have fun.

“As a unified team, we practice for people that have disabilities, and we just thought maybe we’d do basketball because people with disabilities may need help with basketball,” said Azrael Yennie-West, one of the participating students.

Jacy Bodi says that getting all kids out of the classroom and engaging in physical activity is something that benefits them.

“It definitely makes some of the students’ day at school so much better, that they get to get out of their routine of just going to class and they get to be involved in something that’s not just schoolwork and the regular day stuff,” said Bodi.

The event started in 2024 and only involved one other school. This year, four other schools met to play the game of basketball. The hope? Keep the event growing and involve more students.

“Hopefully we can get a couple more teams involved; I know that there were some other ones interested, we like how it is growing and like the atmosphere that it has, so keep building.” said Bodi.